Category: Spiritual Writings

What We Really Are

“I often wonder what would it be like if Jesus were alive today.  Imagine Jesus — who wasn’t a Christian, after all, but a Jew — entering a church today, going up to the pulpit, and giving a sermon.  Can you imagine how challenging that would be for the congregation?  Can you imagine how uniquely different that sermon would be from what many of us received in church?

In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly challenges the religious authorities of the day, but ultimately what he’s saying is relevant to all forms of religion.  It wouldn’t matter if he grew up a Jew, or a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu, because he’s speaking about the structure of religion itself — its hierarchy, its tendency to become corrupted by human beings’ desires for power, for influence, for money.

Matthew 23: 1 – 4 –  Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.”

Jesus, I think, had a profound understanding that the religion itself, instead of connecting us to the radiance of being, connecting us to that spiritual mystery, could easily become a barrier to divinity.  As soon as we get too caught up with the rites and the rituals and the Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots of conventional religion, we begin to lose sight of the primary task of religion, which is to orient us toward the mystery of being and to awaken us to what we really are.”

John 1: 12 – 13 – “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

1 Peter 2:9 – 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Ephesians 6: 11 – 14 – “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.”

Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic, Adyashanti, p. 22-23.

Adyashanti is an American spiritual teacher and author from the San Francisco Bay Area who offers talks, online study courses, and retreats in the United States and abroad.

 

Would You Rather Be Right Or Happy?

Would you rather be right or Happy?
New Age…New Earth…New anything…
Oh the labels…New Cagers….New Ragers …Spiritual …not spiritual… Ancient times…outdated…right wing, left wing, conservative, futuristic…and on and on.
LABELS…labels…labels.
Judgment upon judgments…
WHAT IF????
There is NO right or wrong? Just experiences?
What if we just STOPPED for a moment…
And realized.. (used our REAL Eyes)
We are all ONE in the same…with DIFFERENT perspectives.
What if we were more Inclusive?
What if we saw the best of others and ourselves for a moment?
Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?
We are all from the ONE seed…whether you can see it or not…we are from the same SOURCE.
Each soul has desired to experience themselves in different dimensions, forms, ages, genders, etc.
Is it important to spend your time fighting with others..proving you are right? How do you want to spend your time on Earth?
Remember the part in the Matrix where NEO said his eyes hurt? Morpheus replied, “Because you haven’t used them before”.
Go within to the third eye…do not look through these eyes which separate…LET THY EYE BE SINGLE.
It is only then that we can ALLOW Unity Consciousness…it is only then that we will truly SEE and experience…that there is NO separation.
There never has been and there never will be.. WAKE UP from this story …this illusion of Separation.
Like Dorothy in OZ…we never left home my friends.
We are home NOW.
This body is not home…this is just a point of where our consciousness is projected to experience ourselves in physical form.
We are ONE with all there is…all those people who disagree with you each day? And those you judge..YES..
All you…
There is NOTHING but YOU.
YOU are everywhere…
I see YOU.
I love you.
Carry on…

This Step Will Bring You Peace

“Judgment in the usual sense is impossible.  This is not an opinion but a fact.  In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivable wide range of things, past, present, and to come.  One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way.  And, one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future.  Who is in a position to do this?  Who in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?

Remember how many times you thought you knew all the ‘facts’ you needed for judgment, and how wrong you were!  Wisdom is not judgment; it is the relinquishment of judgment.  Therefore lay judgment down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude.  Now are you free of a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it.

It is not difficult to relinquish judgment.  But it is difficult indeed to try to keep it. The teacher of God lays it down happily the instant he recognizes its cost.  All of the ugliness he sees about him is its outcome.  All of the pain he looks upon is its result.  All of the loneliness and sense of loss; of passing time and growing hopelessness; of sickening despair and fear of death; all these have come of it.  And now he knows that these things need not be.  Not one is true.  For he has given up their cause, and they, which never were but the effects of his mistaken choice, have fallen from him.  Teacher of God, this step will bring you peace. Can it be difficult to want but this?”

A Course In Miracles – Manual For Teachers, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, pgs. 27 – 28, foundationforinnerpeace.org

Able To Adapt To Change

“In a study in the Review of General Psychology, 2001, researchers find that perceived ‘bad’ or ‘negative’ events or emotions can actually be more beneficial to us because they not only are more motivating than perceived ‘good’ emotions but also, people that are able to overcome such things evolve quicker and are easily able to adapt to change and new circumstances.

Instead of looking at ourselves as a ‘victim’ of another’s behavior, we can instead take their judgment of us from the perspective that it has happened FOR us. It is trying to show us where we may still need work. For example, let’s say our goal is to become more patient. 

Instead of expecting that we just are going to magically become patient, we are instead given opportunities to practice being patient. So every traffic jam, every conversation with our co-worker that just never seems to get to the point, are gifts given to us to help us achieve our goal.

Finding the ‘lesson’ inside all our interactions can become something that we embrace completely because we soon find that every fight or argument we find ourselves in is actually a chance for us to drop another limited belief about life or ourselves.”

fractalenlightenment.com

You Are Infinite And Eternal Beings

“You are infinite and eternal beings of Source Energy. You are the Divine that is expanding out in all directions, and you have everything that you need inside of you, and therefore, you could never really measure your worth by looking at how much you have, how much you earn, or how much you’ve accomplished.

So we encourage you not to base your self-esteem, your self-worth, and your self-love on these tangible things, these items that you can point your finger to. And instead, we invite you to feel for your true worth, your worthiness, your infinite and eternal nature, and you do this by going beyond this singular lifetime. You do this by reaching within your heart center and finding the soul that you are deeply embedded within that very center point of your being-ness. Feel for yourself as infinite, eternal, and expanding all at once, and let that be a way for you of measuring yourself, and determining your worth.

Let yourselves dream then as big as you feel yourselves to be, and go beyond the limitations of your third and fourth dimensions. You are there to break free from those bubbles that you have placed yourselves in, and you cannot break free from those bubbles simply by acquiring more wealth or more stuff. It is only through introspection, going within, feeling for who you really are, that you begin to get a taste of the Divine.

And knowing yourself as the Divine while in the physical is the goal. It is the Christ consciousness, and it is what you are all after.”

danielscranton.com